Transportation infrastructure has evolved from carriageways with intersections lacking any traffic control measures to become a complex network of roadways with complex roadway interchanges and countless traffic patterns that are managed through different types of intersections. Traffic lights have long been a mainstay of controlling traffic through intersections to avoid accidents, though the proliferation of vehicles on our roadways has rendered traffic lights, at many times, a hindrance to efficient traffic flow through intersections. Modern signal phase and timing technology has helped in this regard, as have computerized networks to manage traffic and infrastructure. Municipal infrastructure has also benefited from networking technology, such as the networking of traffic control signals to facilitate traffic flow through intersections and along routes.
In the area of traffic control, intersections play a critical role in traffic flow management. Intersections having traffic control signals provide intersection movement state control strategies to ensure vehicle capacity and safety on the roads. Traffic light signal phase and timing may not readily adapt to changes in traffic flow that may be caused by anomalies, such as pedestrian crossings, emergency vehicles, accidents, unusual traffic, or the like. This may cause the traffic light timing to become a hindrance in the efficient flow of traffic through an intersection.